Sophie and Lady

Most of you know that we have a gorgeous Labrador named Sophie.  She is 13 years old now and has slowed down immensely.   Poor Sophie has a problem with her spine and struggles with walking very far and has other difficulties too.  Despite this she is still a very happy dog, enjoys her short walks and still has the appetite of a Labrador but we know she is in her twilight years.  We had been thinking of adopting a rescue dog for some time and I particularly wanted another Labrador but it seems Labradors get rehomed very quickly. 

Sophie

 So the lovely dog we've ended up adopting is a Labradoodle named Lady.  Lady is 9 years old and has been a breeder.  Her owners had no more use for her and were going to have her put down and then a lovely person came to her rescue.  Lady's rescuer had many dogs of her own and couldn't really keep another one so that's where we came into the picture, answering an advertisement for her online.

 

Lady

 Lady has the sweetest nature and is very gentle.  She gets on well with Sophie although is a bit pushy when it comes to getting attention.  She isn't the slightest bit interested in our cats and they are slowly getting use to her.  Lady has only been with us for a week and has settled in beautifully.

 

Besides adopting a dog I have been very busy in the garden, mowing the grass, whipper snippering the weeds and doing the edges, weeding, pruning and tidying up.  In among all the hard work it's so nice to have some spring roses in the garden, enough so I can bring some inside to enjoy.

 It is nice to have some crafting on the go as well and I'm slowly working on my Sanda Paul of Cherry Heart  Spice of Life blanket.  The colours I'm using are more vibrant than shown in this photo and the yarn I'm using is from the Stylecraft Special DK range.  I love this yarn, it's so soft and very economical.

 It was a nice project to work on while we were driving to get Lady which was a 3.5 hour drive.  On the way home Lady was sitting on my lap so no chance to do any more.

 I'm currently working on a sneaky crochet Christmas project which I'll share in another post.

Anne xx

Autumn things

Ornamental grapevine turning colour.

A self sewn pumpkin vine that now covers a large section of the backyard, started life in the timber compost heap.

 It's grown up over the chook house gate, no chooks currently in residence.

 

 

When walking Sophie yesterday I spied these Amanita muscaria, commonly known as the fly agaric or fly amanita, in a garden nearby.  I always think of them as fairy mushrooms.  I had only ever seen them in English illustrated fairy story books until a few years ago.  Couldn't believe my eyes when saw them, it was a magical moment.

 

Anne xx

Photo Scavenger Hunt - February 2015

It's time once again for the monthly Photo Scavenger Hunt.  Thank you Greenthumb at Made With Love blog for organising this fun blog activity.

Flowers

Something a little different, a female cucumber flower.

Love

This photo encapsulates the word love beautifully on many different levels for me.  The love I have for my farming brother (love him to bits), the love I have for the farm where I grew up in Western Australia, the love of fresh milk, non homogenised and non pausteurised milk, the love of recycling - using an old tractor seat and turning it into a milking stool.....

Number

Birthday invitation.

Something beautiful

Our beautiful daughters Genevieve and Charlotte.

Favourite colour

Green in all its shades.

Bird

My lovely cousin in England knows how much I love owls and made this handsome one for me.

On the road

With Louise of Ramblings of a Roachling blog in 2012.  Somewhere in Staffordshire or maybe Derby county.  Louise? 

Tap

The tap on the gas meter, very boring.

Price

The price of the book below found in an op shop.

 Heart

A garden ornament I made a couple of years ago.

 A corner of your home

In the lounge room.

 Whatever you want

Our three animals showing a definite interest in the dinner plate being removed from the table.  So funny but so very naughty.

 Looking forward to seeing what scavenging we will be doing for the March list.

Anne  xx

Late summer

There are still some lovely things flowering in the garden late summerlike these roses which smell divine.

Some Johnny jump up violas I planted from seed.

Prepping peaches for making an upside down peach cake tomorrow.

 Aren't the colours glorious!

I hope you are having an enjoyable weekend.

Anne xx

Cherry tomatoes and garden plant labels

This summer we decided to have another crack at growing tomatoes even though the last three years have been a dismal failure.  This summer season it seems we have had a measure of success with the cherry tomatoes fruiting well and the Grosse Lisse fruiting and starting to ripen.  The cherry tomatoes are somewhat disappointing in flavour and texture so perhaps not best enjoyed fresh but certainly enjoyable to eat in cooking like on top of this zucchini and spinach quiche I made the other night for tea.  The spinach and onions in the quiche were from our garden too.

As the vegetable garden has expanded, I've needed/wanted some garden plant labels that could be used over again.  I did try to make some from clay but they were unsuccessful.  I decided that labels made from galvanised steel would be more durable and after talking to hubby, he supplied me with some galvanised steel strips left over from a prior project.  So I gathered my steel ruler, marking pens, tin snips and steel file and made 47 garden labels.  I greatly enjoyed making something which was needed myself and made out of left over materials.

This morning I noticed we have some zucchinis that will be ready to pick in a few days so am looking forward to adding them to a curry or even making a chocolate zucchini cake.  Speaking vegetables and vegetable gardens, if you want to see an amazing vege garden, visit Tania at http://outbacktania.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/veggie-garden-update.html.
Her garden is amazing.

Anne xx

2015

Well another year is upon us and may it be a good one for everyone.  I hope your NYE celebrations were enjoyable.  We spent ours at home with family and friends, the special guest of course being Mum.  I made up some fruit punch, an old recipe of Mum's that is simple but refreshing.

NYE is a fine time to bring out pretty glasses and family heirlooms.  The silver serving tray in the photo below was my Grandmother's and Mum was very happy to see it being put to good use.  It certainly saved red wine stains from going on the white tablecloth.

 We enjoyed a selection of lovely cheeses and dips with crackers, nuts and other delicious nibbles during the evening.  A few sweet things were enjoyed too, some lemon coconut balls I made, some delicious chocolates and a wonderful platter of fruit.  One or two glasses of champagne were enjoyed by those who wanted something sparkling.

 New Years day was a quiet and slow one here.  There might have been a few of us napping during the day, enjoying yummy leftovers from the night before and some reading of books.  A lovely way to bring in the new year.

Mum returned to Western Australia today accompanied by my sister who will be spending about 10 days with her.  As you know from an earlier post, Mum recently lost her 18 year old cat Humphrey which was heartbreaking as he was a lovey boy and such good company.  I am very happy and excited to hear that before Mum travelled home to the farm today, she adopted a little three year old cat which she has named Cara.  Apparently Cara is settling in well and doing normal cat things like smooching the furniture to leave her scent, jumping up onto the sink, a no no, attempting to scratch the furniture and learning that the scratching post was designed for that purpose.  I'm so very happy for Mum that she has a new little companion and my sister can be there to help out during the settling in period.

Summer weather is arriving in dribs and drabs in Melbourne.  We've had some hot days followed by cool ones and some lovely rain too.  Our tomatoes are looking good, fruiting well and I'm anxiously waiting for the fruit to ripen.  I've started to harvest some of the climbing beans, the dwarf beans have been prolific.  The flower garden is not so plentiful as it was in spring but there is still some lovely colour and summer flowering plants about to burst into bloom.

Grosse lisse.

Cherry tomatoes.

 I've been thinking thinking about the goals I would like to achieve this year rather than making any New Years resolutions.  I have a painting sitting up in the studio, the portrait of a lady that needs completing.  I haven't even started looking at my photos from our 2012 Europe trip with a view to using some of them as painting subject material although a couple of photos in particular come to mind as I'm typing, especially from the Roaches area in Staffordshire where Louise of the blog Ramblings of a Roachling lives.  If you want to see stunning photos of a very beautiful part of the world, go check out her blog, you won't be disappointed.  I'd like to grow more vegetables, get some  chooks again, make lemon marmalade from the lemons on our trees, finish crocheting a cardigan and a blanket I started last year and get myself fit again.  I did lose 4 kilos late last year by reducing my calories just a little bit, reducing my portions a little and with lots of physical activity in the garden.  It was a was a big achievement for me and one I'd like to continue with to lose a few more kilos.  It's most encouraging when you can fit into your clothes comfortably again and rediscover long lost favourites to wear.

Looking forward to catching up on all your posts now things are getting back to normal after the silly season.  Take care everyone.

Anne  xx